Sachin Tendulkar, who has not been convinced about the umpire Decision Review System (DRS), believes that if the idea is to get the decisions right consistently, the third umpire should be empowered to intervene.
Tendulkar was clearly not happy with some DRS decisions in the Rajkot Test against England.
“If the batsman fails to review or the umpire gets it wrong, then a wrong decision is made. The third umpire should be empowered to intervene to get the correct decision,” Tendulkar told The Hindu .
Without actually referring to the review not taken by Cheteshwar Pujara when he was adjudged leg-before to leg-spinner Adil Rashid on the final day of the Test — the replays showed that the ball had landed outside the leg-stump — Tendulkar said: “Sometimes the non-striker is thinking about ways he has to bat and may miss the line of the delivery, or some action. It’s also a breather for a batsman when he is at the bowler’s end. I think one has to go all the way to get a decision consistently right.”
Kohli is rightTendulkar agreed with Virat Kohli’s suggestion that the non-striker should stand as straight as possible to get a good view of the trajectory of the ball and the landing spot in order to assist the striker while deciding to go for a review.
“The non-striker becomes the fourth umpire. I agree with Virat. But, I also strongly feel that the third umpire should be given the powers to intervene when an appeal is made, and if he feels that a wrong decision has been given.”
Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman constitute the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of the BCCI.
It appears that the CAC was not consulted before the decision was taken to trial the DRS in the current series against England.
